Thursday, May 18, 2017

Stephen Cohen on the Latest Anti-Russian McCarthyite Hysteria

Sane analysis of the latest phase of this hysterical nonsense:

Cohen brings up this acutely relevant point: back in 2016, Obama pushed for a ceasefire agreement in Syria and even a policy of coordinating with the Russian military against Islamic State and Nusra Front forces, and even a plan for a “Joint Integration Center” (JIC) for both US Russian military cooperation.

Such cooperation with Russia in Syria was, more or less, what Trump promised in 2016.

So why wasn’t Obama accused of being a Russian agent and of “collusion” with Russia in 2016?

But, curiously, Obama’s policy in 2016 seems to have been sabotaged on 17 September that year when US military figures ordered the Deir ez-Zor airport raid, a series of 37 US-led coalition airstrikes near the Deir ez-Zor Airport in eastern Syria, which ended up killing about 100 or so Syrian soldiers and an emergency UN security council meeting and an end to the ceasefire. The US-Russian detente immediately collapsed.

3 comments:

Interesting video. I think I greet with Cohen this time. The anti-Trumpers have gone berserk, and abandoned any pretense of having or needing evidence. Take this Comey memo. No reporter has seen it. We have third or fourth hand characterizations of it. Yet no-one hesitates to draw big conclusions. And Pelosi's comment shows the mindset. And have you seen the cover of Time magazine? Deranged.

Putin is in no sense a good guy. But we should pursue common interests and peace even with unpleasant people . What's the alternative?

It's politics. Republicans and conservatives were assuming Hillary was guilty of breaking some federal laws vis-a-vis her private email server long before there had been an in-depth investigation. Then they assumed her acquittal was due to Comey's corruption. Where was your outrage then? Or LK's? Nowhere to be found. But that's not a double standard, no, couldn't be...